My roundel is of James the Less. In it I wanted to capture the young and androgynous apostle depicted by da Vinci in The Last Supper painting. As da Vinci painted this using egg tempera on dry plaster, I chose the similar method of Renaissance egg tempera on traditional gesso. Thus I was able to gradually build up tone to subtly address the surprise and dismay of James in the moment that Jesus said “…one of you will betray me”.

Although I usually work in oils, I recently attended courses both in icon painting and Renaissance egg tempera, which enabled me to experience different traditional and contemplative ways of working. Knowledge gained from the icon course enabled me to water gild and emboss the halo. My piece has a slightly broken down or aged appearance which seems in keeping with da Vinci’s original work.

James the Less is the patron saint of fullers, whose work it was to get the oil and impurities out of woollen cloth. This is a nice link for me, as I spent much of my working life making clothes and my maternal grandmother was from a long line of wool weavers.

Irene Godfrey